Will marijuana busts still happen if Prop 64 passes?

If Prop 64 passes - recreational use of marijuana will be legalized in California. The use of marijuana will be overseen by several state agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture and Public Health.Under the Department of Consumer Affairs, ther

In the past few days Calaveras and El Dorado counties made huge marijuana busts.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Department hauled out just over 4,000 pounds of product in a drying room during a raid this week, with around 750 plants being buried on-site and most taken to the landfill.

About 1,000 pounds of processed marijuana was destroyed, burying 500, while also keeping a portion for the district attorney to use as evidence for the case.

Calaveras Sheriff Rick DiBasilio said they used around 34 people to make the seize, including police from nearby counties and people from the county road department.

That was for one raid.

The county enacted a marijuana ordinance in May and Sheriff DiBasilio said there's been a considerable increase in the number of raids.

"Realistically from the beginning of May we've had about 70,000 plants total." he said.

Though he couldn't put an exact number on how many busts and arrests were actually made because of the ordinance being enacted, he was able to pinpoint the difference between 2015 and 2016.

"The difference from last year is there were smaller grows under 100 plants and now it's reached the thousands." he said.

With Proposition 64 on the ballot, this has brought up the question of how California counties will regulate enforcement of the bill if passed?

Prop. 64 states that if you're 21 years or older you'll be able to possess and use marijuana for recreational purposes and designates state agencies to license and regulate the marijuana industry. Also, up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana would be legally allowed to possess.

"If marijuana is made legal, we will still continue to do pot busts in the county." DiBasilio said. " It's not going to change what we're doing because we deal with mostly the commercial stuff."

DiBasilio went on to say that it will be left up to state, county and local municipalities unless it's crossing state lines or on federal lands. Counties with a ban would still operate with police handling issues within their city limits.

If Prop.64 becomes law and allows the recreational use of marijuana, police will continue to be vigilant and make the necessary arrests of illegal use.